Crazy that the power went out in the arena for 40 minutes in the middle of the afternoon game. Semifinal pushed back to a 7 pm start.

I haven't been following the Brier this weekend but overheard on a local Brier report that with the power going out during one of the games, the ice had changed conditions for the Canada and Northern Ontario game and may have affected play..
I've heard power outages are a common thing in Newfoundland but doesn't the ice rink there have backup power for each time this happens? I understand that it's usually pretty wild weather there to be sure, but even this particular Winter storm was probably worst than most.

Yeah it was a highly unusual storm. Power is still out for tens of thousands so they definitely gave Mile One some priority. When thr power went out at the Brier, everyone broke out their cell phones and had a sing-a-long. Not sure what their generation capacity is but they did have emergency lights:

A few of the downtown bars have generators. We've got weird priorities.

__________________Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."

^^ wow I love the shot of the curling ice by emergency & cell phone light!

..with the rabid crowd support & home town team making it to finals, this has got to be the quirkiest Brier in years/decades.
I hope the Newfoundland team wins just to see what kind of craziness the people there can think up.. maybe they will name not only the community's highway with skips name but maybe they will re-name other landmarks like the airport, ship or railyards or maybe even the rink where they are playing!

I haven't been following the Brier this weekend but overheard on a local Brier report that with the power going out during one of the games, the ice had changed conditions for the Canada and Northern Ontario game and may have affected play..
I've heard power outages are a common thing in Newfoundland but doesn't the ice rink there have backup power for each time this happens? I understand that it's usually pretty wild weather there to be sure, but even this particular Winter storm was probably worst than most.

There are backup generators at Mile One, however I believe they're mostly used for emergency lighting and whatnot. It probably took a while to get the entire building up. I believe power was restored in that area of downtown pretty quickly, more likely than not it was just a local outage from a downed line, unlike other parts of the city/province where entire transmission lines and towers came tumbling down. Power outages can be common in the winter months during storms, but this truly was a once in a 50 year kind of wind storm. Winds gusting to 160 in the city didn't even happen during Hurricane Igor; there's not a lot you can do with that kind of widespread damage to the electrical grid.

No doubt spending that long in unideal conditions may have affected the ice. Plus, having to be out of the mindset of the game for an hour can really change a games outcome. Just look at Superbowl 47, it was essentially two completely different games: before and after the power outage.

CBC brought over a mainland reporter to cover the Brier for their live blog. He's become a sort of local celebrity over the past week. Lots of people getting their pictures taken with him, etc. So he's actually meeting and chatting with a lot of locals.

He's seriously doing really well, even responds to individual tweets.

__________________Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."

Some businesses, the City, and the provincial government have announced late openings tomorrow morning (10 a.m. in some cases) to allow a party tonight. And, conveniently, also because half the city's traffic lights were blown away lol

GOD I hope Gushue wins. We'll party anyway, but it would be nice to be celebrating.

__________________Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."